Review of the Capital One® Savor® Cash Rewards Credit Card

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Our Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

We give the Capital One Savor Card 4 out of 5 Stars because it earns cash back at restaurants at a relatively high rate, and it has a good signup bonus. But it also comes with an annual fee.

Why we like this card

Good cash back rate at restaurants and for entertainment (4%)

Decent cash back rate for grocery store purchases (2%)

Signup bonus of $300 for spending $3,000 in the first 3 months

World Elite Mastercard benefits

No foreign transaction fees

Why this card could be better

$95 annual fee after the first year

No intro rate for purchases or balance transfers

The Savor isn’t a bad offer, but you may be able to earn better rewards with a different card, or a combination of cards. Check out some alternative card options below.

Insider Advice: Using This Card as Part of Your Credit Card Strategy

For food spending: Use this card to pay for meals from restaurants (4% cash back) and at grocery stores (2%).

And for fun: You’ll get 4% back for entertainment purchases, like the movies and sporting events, as well as 8% back on tickets purchased through Vivid Seats.

Get the signup bonus: Spend $3,000 in the first 3 months to earn a $300 cash bonus.

Use your perks: This card comes with World Elite Mastercard benefits which can potentially be quite valuable, like a Concierge Service and the World Elite Hotels & Resorts Portfolio.

Redeem for statement credits: The easiest redemption method is for statement credits, which will simply reduce your account balance.

Don’t pay extra while traveling: The Savor card has no foreign transaction fees when making purchases in foreign currency, so you won’t be charged extra.

Offset the annual fee: You’ll need to spend a minimum of $2,375 with this card to earn $95 in cash back, which would offset the annual fee.

Rewards

Earning

Spending Rewards

8% cash back at Vivid Seats (until 5/2020)

4% cash back on:

dining

entertainment

2% cash back at grocery stores

1% cash back everywhere else

Signup Bonus Offer

$300 cash back for spending $3,000 in the first 3 months after account opening

Return on spend: 10%

You can earn unlimited cash back, and your rewards never expire.

This card is meant to be your go-to option for food spending. Most cards don’t provide cash back categories for both restaurants and grocery stores, and 4% back for dining is pretty rare.

However, you can find some better offers, overall, with certain other cards. The 2% back for grocery store purchases isn’t really anything special, as some cards provide 2% back for every purchase (like the Citi® Double Cash Card - 18 month BT offer (Review), which provides 1% back for purchases and an additional 1% back for payments). Check out our other alternatives below for more options.

The signup offer of $300 cash back is decent for a card like this, though the return on spend is pretty standard. In most cases, with cards at this level you’ll only see offers for $100 or $150, maybe $200.

There’s a bit of a story behind the Savor card. It originally offered 3% cash back for dining, and had no annual fee. But then Barclays’ Uber Visa Card came along, offering 4% back at restaurants with no annual fee. After that, Capital One redesigned the Savor card to offer 4% back for restaurants and entertainment, but with a $95 annual fee. It also released the Capital One® SavorOne℠ Cash Rewards Credit Card (Review), which is more like the original Savor card. Try not to get confused!

Capital One’s reward categories include the following types of merchants. Take note that the entertainment category does not include cable, digital streaming, and subscription services.

Dining

Restaurants

Fast-food Chains

Cafes

Bars

Bakeries

Lounges

Entertainment

Movies

Concerts

Plays

Sporting Events

Tourist Attractions

Theme Parks

Aquariums

Zoos

Pool Halls

Dance Clubs

Bowling Alleys

Record/Video Rental Stores

Grocery Stores

Supermarkets

Dairy Product Stores

Specialty Market

Meat Lockers

Redeeming

You can redeem your cash back in three different ways:

Statement credits to reduce your account balance

Physical checks

Gift cards

We recommend that you always redeem your cash back as a statement credit because this is the easiest and most direct method. Physical checks will take several weeks to arrive.

Gift card redemption rates will vary, and you won’t always get the full value of your cash back so we recommend that you avoid this method.

You can set up automatic redemption preferences to make the process easier. You can either set it for certain dates throughout the year or when your cash back hits a specific threshold.

How to Offset the Annual Fee

The Savor has a $95 annual fee, waived the first year. So you’ll want to use it enough to make it worth the cost every year. (Unless you had the original no-fee Savor card, in which case you’ll get the new card version but won’t have to pay the new fee.)

How much would you need to spend to earn $95 in cash back?

At the 4% rate, you’d need to spend $2,375 to earn $95. Or, for an example of more varied spending, it would take $1,187 at the 4% rate and $2,375 at the 2% rate.

If you’re a particularly passionate event attendee, you could also spend $1,187.50 with Vivid Seats (until 5/2020) to recoup your $95.

This doesn’t take into account any of the benefits you’ll get with this card, like the World Elite Hotels & Resorts Portfolio. This comes with a complimentary breakfast for two, room upgrades, and other perks at select hotels. Depending on how you value this and the other card benefits, you may feel like you’re getting a lot for the fee.

The Savor card is not bad, but consider what you’d get from the SavorOne card with the same amount of spending. It has 3% cash back categories for dining and entertainment, but no annual fee.

If you spent $2,375 at the 3% rate, you’d earn $71.25 in cash back. And that would be all profit because you don’t have to offset the annual fee. It turns out that you’d need to spend $9,500 per year at the 4% rate before the Savor card becomes more valuable than the SavorOne — see our comparison below for more details.

Alternatively, you could go with the Uber Visa, which provides 4% cash back for dining and has no annual fee — the best of both worlds, but the signup bonus is somewhat small.

The Benefits

The Savor card comes with a surprisingly wide variety of potentially useful benefits, from both Capital One and Mastercard.

Food and Drink: A 10% discount on food from permanent concession stands in the Capital One Arena.

Merchandise: 20% discount on retail transactions at the Arena Team Store and retail brands, 50% discount on one pre-selected item per home game.

These benefits and discounts could be very valuable for any sports fans living near Capital One Arena. But keep in mind that you could get the same benefits with the SavorOne card, which has no annual fee.

Capital One CreditWise®

Provides free access to your VantageScore 3.0 from your TransUnion credit report. You’ll also get access to your actual TransUnion report, which most cards don’t offer. Although this isn’t the more common FICO Credit Score, it can still be a useful way to monitor your credit.

Capital One will provide tips and advice for improving your credit score. There are email alerts to inform you of any changes to your TransUnion credit report. And you can also use the Credit Simulator to see how your credit might change from any particular financial decisions.

Many card issuers offer some kind of credit monitoring service, but CreditWise is one of the best. Even though you can’t see a FICO score, the detailed access to your TransUnion credit report can be very useful. And anyone can use the CreditWise service for free, you don’t need to be a Capital One cardholder.

Chase offers a very similar service with its Credit Journey tool, which anyone can use. In other cases, like with Barclays, you’ll need to use one of its cards like the Uber Visa to get some type of credit monitoring. That card just provides a FICO score, along with some key factors affecting your scores.

Shopping Protections

Price Protection: Provides reimbursement if you find an eligible item you bought being advertised for a lower price.

Purchase Protection: Eligible purchases are covered against damage and theft.

Extended Warranty: Will add up to 24 months to an eligible manufacturer’s warranty of 24 months or less.

Travel Protections

MasterTrip Travel Assistance: Help with travel, like information on regional requirements and medical referrals.

Master RoadAssist® Service: Call 1-800-MC-ASSIST for help with towing, tire changes, and other road services.

MasterRental Insurance: Coverage for rented vehicles against damage and theft, as long as you decline the rental company’s own insurance.

Travel Accident Insurance: Available when traveling by common carrier, which covers you and your family against accidental injury or loss of life.

Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance: If your trip is cancelled or interrupted for an eligible reason, you can be reimbursed up to $1,500 to cover any non-refundable costs.

Baggage Delay Insurance: If your bags are delayed, you can get up to $100 per day for 3 days to cover the purchase of essential items.

Other Benefits

$0 Liability Fraud Protection: You will not be held responsible for unauthorized use of your card.

Identity Theft Resolution Services: Provides assistance from a specialist if you believe that you are a victim of identity theft.

Eno from Capital One: An extension or program you can use to create virtual card numbers for safer online shopping.

Security and Account Alerts: Get alerts about account information via text, email, or by phone.

Second Look: Capital One monitors your account for unusual and duplicate charges, and will send alerts if any are found.

Card Lock: Instantly lock your card account, and turn it back on again when you’re ready.

The Terms & Fees

Purchase APR

Balance Transfer APR

Cash Advance APR

16.74% - 25.74%

16.74% - 25.74%

25.74% Variable

Annual Fee

Foreign Transaction Fee

Balance Transfer Fee

Cash Advance Fee

$0 intro for first year; $95 after that

None

$0

3%, $10 minimum

Penalty APR

Late Fee

Returned Payment Fee

See Terms

Up to $38

See Terms

The Savor card has a $95 annual fee after the first year. As shown above, you’ll need to spend a minimum of $2,375 to offset that every year.

This card is a bit unusual, because it comes with no fee for balance transfers at the regular APR. However, if you’re offered a promotional APR at some point, like 0% for 6 months, you’ll need to pay a 3% fee for that transfer.

All Capital One cards have no foreign transaction fees, a nice feature to have in case you plan to travel outside the country.

What is the Credit Limit of the Savor Card?

You can request a credit limit increase after showing that you’re a responsible card user. If you want a higher limit, we generally recommend requesting an increase once every six or 12 months.

Customer Support

Phone Support

Customer support for existing accounts

1-800-CAPITAL (1-800-227-4825)

Apply for a credit card

1-800-695-5500

Capital One is known for having pretty good customer support, compared to other credit card companies.

We’ve called its customer support team several times, and we’ve usually been helped by friendly and knowledgeable agents. They can typically answer our questions in a reasonable amount of time, without much frustration, if any.

Every year, J.D. Power ranks the top credit card issuers by customer satisfaction, and Capital One usually does pretty well. In 2018, Capital One came in fifth out of the 11 major issuers included.

That doesn’t sound very good on the face of it, but the third, fourth, and fifth place companies were all about even. And they’re all significantly lower than the first and second place companies — Discover and American Express, respectively. (USAA actually wins the whole survey by a wide margin, but it’s not really included because not everyone is eligible for its cards.)

Web Support

Capital One makes it quite easy to see all the card information on its website, including all the benefit details. It provides a link to the Guide to Benefits you can expect to get, which most card issuers don’t do, and the other Capital One benefits are clearly explained.

Cardholders can contact Capital One online through the live web chat. Or, anyone can get in touch with Capital One through its Twitter support account, @AskCapitalOne. Be sure not to reveal any personal or account information on Twitter or other social networks.

The Bottom Line

It offers rewards for dining and entertainment at a relatively high rate, of 4% cash back. But you can get the same rate for dining with the Uber Visa at no annual fee, although the other bonus categories are different and the signup bonus is smaller. And then there’s the SavorOne, with 3% cash back for dining and no annual fee.

The Savor card’s 8% cash back with Vivid Seats offers a good return on spend, but this highly specific category doesn’t seem likely to be as much of a selling point as its general dining and entertainment rewards.

The Savor has a decent signup bonus, at $300 for spending $3,000 in the first 3 months, though the return on spend isn’t exceptional. It does come with some valuable World Elite Mastercard benefits, however, which are typically only found on the better travel cards.

If you had the original Savor card with no annual fee, you’ll be grandfathered in to the new rewards program but you won’t have to pay the new annual fee. So you’ll be earning 4% back at no cost whatsoever, as long as you avoid interest and fees. That would be a pretty good deal, probably worth hanging on to.

There are some other cards that could be more rewarding for restaurant purchases, especially if you would have to pay the annual fee for the Savor. Check out some of those alternatives below, one of which might be perfect for your shopping habits.

How to Apply for the Capital One Savor Cash Rewards

You can apply securely on Capital One’s website, and it will check your credit reports from Equifax, Experian, TransUnion, and Innovis.

Capital One will often provide an instant decision, but in some cases it may request more information to process the application.

This card is designed for excellent credit according to Capital One, meaning a FICO 8 Credit Score of about 760 or above. But this isn’t a direct requirement, and you may be approved if your credit scores are quite a bit lower, in the “good” range, depending on your other finances.

Qualifications and Requirements

Personal identifying information, including SSN, email address, and phone number

Total annual income, and source of income

Monthly mortgage/rent payment

Must be 18 to apply

Must not have applied for a Capital One credit card two or more times in the last 30 days

Must not have five or more open credit card accounts with Capital One

Must not have a past due Capital One credit card account

Must not be over the credit line on a Capital One credit card

Must not have had a Capital One credit card that was charged off within the past year

Benefits

Terms & Fees

The SavorOne has no annual fee. It also comes with a 15-month 0% introductory APR for both purchases and balance transfers before the regular 16.24% - 26.24% APR starts. That makes it quite a bit cheaper than the Savor, and gives you some time to pay off purchases or transferred balances.

Other than that, the terms are mostly the same between these cards.

Which card is more rewarding overall, the Savor or the SavorOne? The Savor earns a bit more cash back, but it also has a $95 annual fee to pay every year, cutting into your profits.

It turns out that you’d need to spend more than $9,500 per year before the Savor will be more rewarding for dining and entertainment spending. That’s after accounting for the annual fee.

Here’s how much cash back you’d earn with each card at various spending levels.

The Uber Visa Card (Review) is a top competitor of the Savor card, offering the same reward rate for dining but at no annual fee. There are some other valuable reward categories, although this card doesn’t have a lot to offer other than the spending rewards.

Rewards

Spending Rewards

4% cash back on dining, including restaurants, bars, and UberEATS

3% cash back on hotels and airfare, including vacation home rentals

2% cash back for online purchases, including Uber

1% cash back for all other purchases

Introductory Bonus Offer

$100 cash bonus for spending $500 in the first 90 days after account opening

Return on spend: 20%

So you’ll be earning just as much back at restaurants, and you’ll also get a solid 3% cash back for hotels and airfare. Those are good rates compared to other cards.

The 2% back for online purchases could be valuable as well, if you don’t have a different card that gives you 2% back or better. The Citi® Double Cash Card - 18 month BT offer (Review) earns 2% back for every purchase, for example, and is more useful because you get that rate for both online and in-store purchases.

The signup bonus is fairly weak at $100, but it’s also easy to get with just $500 in purchases. That 20% return on your spending is pretty good.

Benefits

The Uber Visa doesn’t have the same selection of travel benefits that you get with the Savor card, but it does have several that you might find useful.

$50 Streaming Subscription Credit: An annual $50 credit for streaming services, like Netflix and Hulu, after spending $5,000 in a given year.

Uber Exclusive Events: Cardholders may occasionally receive invitations to events in big cities around the country.

Cell Phone Insurance: Up to $600 in cell phone insurance, when you pay your bill with the card.

Price Protection: Provides reimbursement if you find an eligible item you bought being sold for a lesser price.

Rewards

$100 cash bonus for spending $500 in the first 90 days after account opening

equivalent to 20% cash back

The AARP card provides 1% cash back less than the Savor card, and it also doesn’t have the entertainment or grocery store categories. But instead it includes gas stations for 3% back, which is a pretty good rate compared to most cards.

If you’re not interested in the entertainment or grocery store categories of the Savor, but you want a card for dining and gas spending, this one might work well for you.

The $100 signup bonus isn’t very impressive, but it also won’t be very hard to earn. So that seems like a fair trade-off.

Benefits

The AARP card comes as either a Visa Platinum, with basic benefits, or a Visa Signature, with better benefits. Visa Signature cards will come with features similar to those of the Savor above, although they may not be quite as good.

If you’re approved for the AARP card with a credit line of $5,000 or more, you’ll get a Visa Signature. Otherwise you’ll get a Visa Platinum.

The potential Visa Signature benefits may include:

Visa Signature Concierge: Call for non-emergency assistance with a variety of tasks, like making reservations or finding good tickets.

Luxury Hotel Collection: Special perks at over 900 hotels around the world.

You’ll earn 2X points for dining and travel purchases, but the value you end up getting will depend on how you redeem those points.

Chase Ultimate Rewards (UR) points can be redeemed in a number of ways. If you redeem through the Ultimate Rewards portal for travel expenses you’ll get a 25% bonus, which will give you 1.25 cents per point. That comes to a cash back equivalent of 2.5% for dining and travel.

However, you can also transfer your UR points to a variety of airline and hotel loyalty partners, where you can find a better value. You may find deals that give you 2 cents per point or more, which would provide a cash back equivalent of 4% or more. That would make it equal to the Savor card for dining.

The Sapphire Preferred has an excellent signup bonus of 60,000 UR points for spending $4,000. Even though it would take a bit more spending to hit the requirement, you could potentially earn as much as $1,200 or more from the points you get.

Benefits

You’ll get some travel perks with the Sapphire Preferred that could be pretty useful. People are especially fond of using point transfers to get high-value redemptions.

1:1 Point Transfer: Ultimate Rewards points can be transferred at a 1:1 rate with popular airline and hotel loyalty partners, like Marriott Bonvoy and United MileagePlus.

Visa Signature Concierge: 24/7 help with non-emergency tasks, like dining reservations or making travel plans.

Direct Access to a Customer Support Specialist: You’ll be immediately connected with a real human when you call customer support.

Shop Through Chase: A shopping portal where you’ll find offers to earn more points, from retailers like The Apple Store, Macy’s, and The Home Depot (current offers at the time of publication).

Chase Preferred Experiences: Invites to exclusive experiences from Chase, often for music or sports events.

Invite friends for bonus points: Get 10,000 bonus points for every friend you successfully refer, up to 50,000 points per year.

Terms & Fees

The Sapphire Preferred has terms and fees that are about the same as the Savor card.

It has an annual fee of $95. There are no foreign transaction fees. Balance transfers are subject to a 5% fee.

Overall, the main difference between these cards is that the Sapphire Preferred is designed for travelers. If you’re able to plan out redemptions, transferring your points for a high value, you’ll be able to get a good return on both your restaurant and travel spending.

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